SCUSD Plans Surprise Party for Returning Fruit Ridge StudentsFollow up to February: Kids will tour freshly repaired Oak Park campus for the first time since asbestos scare

Press releaseJune 16, 2011

Sacramento – Students returning to the newly upgraded Fruit Ridge
Elementary School in Oak Park – the site of an asbestos scare in
February – will be surprised with a tour of their remodeled
campus and an ice cream party on Friday.

The surprise celebration will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Friday (June
17) when students return on buses to the Oak Park campus, located
at 4625 44th St. To catch the children’s reactions, media should
plan to be at the school prior to the arrival of buses at 1:30
p.m.

Fruit Ridge has been closed since February 18, after workers
installing wireless technology came in contact with attic
insulation containing a small concentration of asbestos fibers.
Buildings throughout the country constructed prior to 1977 often
contained asbestos. Fruit Ridge was built in 1937.

In the months since the school’s closure, Sacramento City Unified
School District (SCUSD) crews have completed an extensive
asbestos removal project and made other facility improvements –
including a brand new floor for the multipurpose room. Workers
also repaired roof leaks and dry rot, patched walls, painted, and
upgraded the school’s aging electrical system.

“We want the kids to know that when they return to school in the
fall, they’re going to find a safe, beautiful, spotlessly clean
campus waiting for them,” said Superintendent Jonathan Raymond.
Friday is the last day of school for all 81 SCUSD campuses.

Originally, the work at Fruit Ridge was scheduled for completion
on August 1. However, crews pushed hard to finish the project
nearly two months early and about $200,000 under budget.

“I’m incredibly proud of this district for the way so many
departments and people came together to provide the safest
possible learning environment for our students,” said
Superintendent Raymond. “This is a great example of our slogan:
Putting children first.”

SCUSD prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and
bullying based on actual or perceived ancestry, age, color,
disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression,
nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, parental, family or marital status, or association
with a person or a group with one or more of these actual or
perceived characteristics.